Happy New Year

Yeah, I'm a little late and I've been a bit lax at updating my blog.  Not that anyone's paying attention anyway.


So, here we are, January 18.  I did post my trip to Borgata in October, which I thought I already had.  So let's catch people up on what's happened since October:


October 19:  We went to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo) to see Bau Bau, the baby panda, and we did!  We did this as I was leaving to go to NYC for a business trip.


October 20:  I had an awful dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in NYC, where I waited around 20 minutes for a waiter.


October 26:  We went to Summers Farm near Frederick, MD to go pumpkin picking.  We've been going there for the past three years and although there are places closer to where we live, they have a lot of activities here that we think makes it worth the drive.


October 27:  We went to see Disney on Ice.  We let Tessandra get dressed in her Elsa costume and she had a wonderful time.


November 4:  We took Tessandra ice skating for the first time, she did quite well.  This was in preparation for the Try Hockey for Free program USA Hockey was running.  We were going to be in Atlantic City that weekend, but there's a Flyer's Skate Zone there, so I was able to get her in there.  There weren't a lot of children there, but it wasn't set up for different skill levels, so those who had little experience on skates, did not really get to "learn" hockey.  We stayed at Trump Taj Mahal, which what I thought was going to be the last time I'd stay there before it closed.  Turns out they are planning on being open at least through 2015.  My friends Catherine, Bob, and I did share a royal though, so that was fun.


November 12:  Another business trip up to NYC.


November 23:  I had another Borgata Fiore Suite booked, and made the trip alone again.  I rented a car from Alamo and they had a really great deal for a minivan.  I jokingly took a picture of it before I left, and it was fortunate that I did, as when I returned it, the person noted damage on the front which I did not do, and they tried to make me pay for it.  I sent them an e-mail with the photo I took and they "decided" that they would take care of the damage.  In the future, I'll always remember to take good notes (and possibly photos or videos) of my car rentals.  We did have a good time in AC, we used the pool, tried Noodles of the World (which we liked) and The Metropolitan (when we weren't too impressed).  We drove down to Ocean City and played some golf, although it was a bit chilly and quite windy.


November 27:  Thanksgiving at my mother's which we very nice.  Then the next night we had a family dinner at Uncle Julio's Rio Grande Café, which I hadn't been to since it was just Rio Grande.  The food was still good though, and Tessandra enjoyed watching the tortilla machine.  The next night we had brunch at Whitlow's on Wilson, which was really nice, they had crab legs!  I'll have to remember that for future brunches.


December 6:  My handbell choir performed at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.  We've performed there many times, but this time didn't go as well.  We weren't mic-ed up too well and on one of our songs, I didn't have enough room and was clanking bells left and right.  Probably one of my worst performances ever.  But, it is always a treat to play there.  We performed two other concerts at two retirement homes and those went very well.


December 12-18:  We took Tessandra to Walt Disney World for her birthday, I'll make a separate entry for that trip.


December 23:  I was part of a small handbell ensemble that performed the National Anthem before the Wizards game.  It didn't go as well as our performance before the Nationals game, mostly because there were only around 35 people and not all of the parts were covered.  Still, it was nice to be out on the court.


December 24:  We hurried down to my brother's to make Christmas Eve church service and stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Virgina Beach.  That's one of our favorite hotels, mostly because they have the library there where Tessandra can get books.


December 26:  We headed up to Atlantic City for our usual end of the year trip.  Unfortunately, Cath couldn't take any additional time off, so she and Tessandra headed back on Sunday afternoon while I stayed for an additional two nights.  Friday and Saturday we stayed at Resorts, and because we got there so late (8:42 PM), we got a pretty plain room.  We met friends at Borgata and ate at The Metropolitan.  We had lunch the next day at Breadsticks at Resorts, since the buffet is now closed forever.  We walked down to Caesars to meet some friends, saw the light show on Boardwalk Hall, since the fountain show at The Pier is gone.  We had a late dinner at Café Roma before heading back to Resorts.


I had a horrible gambling trip, making three really bad trips this year (Las Vegas, the August AC trip, and this one).  Not even 1 1/3 royals helped, although a dollar royal would have made the year good (a quarter royal would have broken even this trip).  Since I didn't renew my Epic card at Resorts, I blew out my comp for Sunday brunch at Capriccio.  It was good as always, and I think I'll make it a point to have brunch there when we're up there.  The servers and the General Manager are great.  They could use a few more food selections (crab legs), but what they have is really good and the service is top notch.


Cath and Tessandra head home after brunch and get caught in some bad holiday traffic.  I walk from Resorts to Trump Taj Mahal, where I booked a room there a few months ago, but never cancelled it even when they said they were closing.  We went to The Water Club at Borgata for our end of the year MPT Tournament, which our friend "Sass" won (after many years of trying, not that we all haven't).  As it was Sunday, we were hard pressed to find something to eat late at night and ended up getting an overpriced meal at Dunkin Donuts.


Monday, Bob and I walked down to Caesars and ate at Kwi, which we enjoy.  We walked through Bally's and looked at Claridge and then headed to Borgata to meet our friends again.  After Bob couldn't get a cheese steak at Tony Luke's because they were out of bread and didn't want to take the time to bake more, we had burgers from Fatburger.


We checked out of Trump Taj Mahal for the last time in 2014, stopped at The Palace Diner for lunch and Bob dropped me off at 30th Street Station so I could catch my train home.


January 1:  I ended up not going to the Winter Classic, after taking a casino beating, I just didn't have the money to use on a ticket, and a friend did post that she had one available.  *sigh*
We had mom's pre-birthday dinner at Duck Chang's, as we always do.  We were fortunate that Stephen's fiancée was able to attend as well as Joshua.  The next night I took Tessandra to the Teppanyaki Grill Buffet, which she calls, "Happy Buddha", since they have a Buddha statue by the hostess stand.


January 10:  It was the handbell retreat weekend.  We worked on music for the Riverside Festival in April, plus some numbers for the dessert concert in February, which I'm going to miss for the first time because I'm going to the Capitals-Flyers game for my birthday.  It will be strange not being there, but I felt like a treat for my birthday.


And that brings us to now!  I guess I had a fairly busy end of the year, especially with the Disney trip.  This year I'm already packed with trips.  I'll be going back to Disney for Star Wars Weekend, plus I'll be going to Las Vegas two weeks after that with my poker buddies, and then I'll be going back to Vegas again at the end of July with my forum board friends.  I think I may be tripped out for this year!

October Borgata Trip

Wednesday, October 1

 

I received some Borgata offers for Fiore Suites from my play in August and wanted to take advantage of them.  I booked one, but unfortunately, my wife couldn’t get the time off, and since I hated to cancel the suite, I decided to go.  I let my friend up there know and we decided to share the room.  Since we only have one car, I booked the Amtrak, leaving Union Station at 1:02 PM, arriving at 30^th Street Station at 2:57 PM, and leaving there on Sunday at 4:35 PM, getting back to Washington at 6:30 PM.  It was $127.00 r/t, which I felt wasn’t bad, the trip up was only $38, it was the $89 rate coming back that was a bit pricey.

I did my usual drill, picked up the bus to the Metro station, and then took the Metro to Union Station.  I had a quick lunch at McDonald’s before boarding.  I didn’t think a Wednesday train at 1:00 PM would be crowded, but it was.  I didn’t have to share my seat though, so it wasn’t so bad.  It was mostly cloudy and it rained at times, but the sun also came out.  I arrived in Philly a little after 3:00 and Bob had just arrived to pick me up.  There was a little bit of traffic getting out of the city, but I think we made good time, and pulled into Borgata around 4:25.

There was a bit of a line at check-in, but the clerk did confirm that I had the Fiore suite, two beds.  Bob had a separate reservation, when I was going to be using the room with the family, but he was able to cancel it then with no charge or hassle.

I had stayed in the Fiore suite once before, when I checked in after midnight on a Thursday, but this is the first time I was able to actually make a reservation for one.  It is one of the nicer suites I’ve stayed in, the bathroom is huge, but this time there weren’t any robes in the closet like last time, of course, that was many years ago.

You can see pictures of the suite here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154871113600232.1073741865.813685231&type=1&l=fa628bc1fa

We were going to check out the pool, but we got the Xbox set up and were playing on it for a while before we realized that we should eat.  They are running a promo where you can get a 2-1 buffet by showing a Showboat (Total Rewards), Revel, or Trump Plaza (Trump One) card at the slot club.  We got there around 7:50 and talking with the clerk, she said it was good for 24 hours and if we wanted to use it today, we’d have to get there quickly, because the buffet closed at 8:00.  Wow, we rushed across the casino to get there, the gate was partially closed and a woman was standing there but she let us in.

They’ve slimmed down the menu a bit, but there are still tasty offerings, although I just pretty much got prime rib and shrimp.  They used to have some nice dim sum offerings, but not any more.  Even the gelato choices were smaller, they only had like four flavors, which was disappointing.

I played a little bit, losing around $80.  We spent the rest of the night playing Xbox and drinking.

Thursday, October 2

Well, we slept late, what else is new.  We decided we’d definitely check out the pool (we’ve stayed here a few time and always wanted to go, but never did), it was small, but nice.  We spent about an hour down there, checked out one of the hot tubs and I checked out the sundeck area.

We left the Do Not Disturb sign on because we were planning on coming back and showering and would have housekeeping come after we left for lunch, but when we came back, the sign was gone and when I opened the door, I saw that housekeeping had already been there.  They also kept our sign, but fortunately, she was just next door, so Bob asked for another one.  We also noticed that she left the tip we had left in the bathroom for her (which wasn’t the first time that it’s happened to us in AC).

We showered up and went down to the “Cafeteria” for lunch.  It was a bit late for lunch, and we were going to do the buffet again tonight, so we just got pizza, Bob just a slice and me, I got a combo, which came with a drink and a salad.  I wanted a Coke because I brought some Malibu but because Bob stopped drinking Coke, he didn’t bring any.  We went back up to the room and ate and played more Xbox while we were waiting for our friend to join us for dinner.

We made sure we got there a bit earlier, and there was a bit of a line when we got there around 7:15 PM.  Fortunately, the other Bob had a Black Label card, so we were able to pay right away.  I had $18 in comps from my previous play, so that helped on the 2-1.

One of our friends works there, so they went to visit him while I went back up to the room to video conference my wife and daughter.  Bob came back up and we went down to the casino floor to play a bit.  We tried a few video poker games with no luck, we tried some nickel Ultimate X and hit a multiplied quad to get us almost to even.  We parlayed it on Multi-Strike and I believe all three time we made it to the top line, we got a paying hand, a flush, a straight, and two pair, so we were about even.  I found 50c on a Triple Trouble VP machine and I put in $10 to play it off and hit a quad.  Then I was playing some 50c 9/6 JoB and hit another quad and was about even for the two days.

We headed back upstairs, played a little more Xbox and called it a night.

Friday, October 3

Originally we had reservations at Trump Taj Mahal, but since it was closing and Bob has a shore house down in Stone Harbor, which is about 45 minutes away, we decided that we’d just go to the shore house.  We did have to go by there anyway, since Bob cashed out of Ultimate Casino.

I have an Epic card at Resorts, so we parked for free there and had lunch at the Epic Lounge.  We had eaten there once before and it was pretty nice, so we ate there again.  It is $12.50 in comp dollars per person, which is up from the $10 it was.  It is a nice little lounge and although they don’t have a large offering of food, the food seemed to be good.  Our drink service was a little poor though.

We headed over to the Taj, and I noticed that I didn’t have any of my Trump One cards.  Fortunately, there was no line at the slot club and I got two replacement cards.  I went to play my $40 in FreePlay, plus the $7 I had in slot dollars.  Unfortunately, you can only get your slot dollars in $1, $10, $25, $50, and $100 denominations, so that was a bit inconvenient, especially getting my $7 out.  I was playing their old Game Maker $1 9/6 JoB machines and hit a few hands to turn my $47 into $75.

We headed back to Resorts, where I was going to put in a play day while Bob went back home to feed his cat.  We played a quick $100 on $1 8/5 BP before he left and he hit a quad, but we both ended up losing.

I went back and hit a bonus quad, but it quickly was lost, and another $100, and another $100.  It wasn’t going so well.  I took a break and tried the $1 Wheel of Fortune, I got two spins, both hit on either side of the 1,000 slice.  I took my losings to the $1 Top Dollar machine, I hit a few bonuses but nothing great.  I tried the Dean Martin Wild Party slot, but didn’t get a bonus.

I went down to the 25c 8/5 JoB Progressive, the progressive was just under $1,200.  I was doing pretty good, I hit a few quads, then I hit like deuces with a kicker and I’m thinking, isn’t that always the way?  I did cash out up $80, so that was something.  I headed back to the high limit area and lost another $100 on the $1 8/5 BP.

I went down to the 25c 9/5/4 DDB Progressive, and after a few hands I held three deuces and drew an ace and the other deuces, $200!  Yea!  Around 5 minutes later, I get dealt quad threes and I draw a kicker for another $200.  I put in $20 and cashed out $325!  I’m still a bit down though.

I put in $40 on a 50c 8/5 BP machine and it goes pretty quickly.  I put in another and get some good hands, I hit a few quads.  Then I get 9s-10s-X-Ks-Qs, I figure I have to hold the straight flush draw, and wouldn’t you know, the Js comes in.  Ugh, and what if I didn’t hold the 9s?  Ah well, it’s still a nice $125 hit.

The guy next to me says, that’s the way you had to play it, and we get to talking about the games.  He’s a Red Carpet player, so he plays a lot.  He told me, as I suspected, that they increased the coin-in required to earn points.  We talked about the state of gaming in AC and other things.  Bob said he was here, so I was finishing up my play, I got three aces and picked up the fourth right around when he arrived.  I cashed out a profit of $320 and played another $100 while Bob was there.  I only ended up being down around $100, which wasn’t bad.  I ended up earning 20 points.

It was around 8:00 and I wanted to check out the Boardwalk, since I hadn’t really walked around there the past few trips.  We went down to Bally’s, since I hadn’t been in there since the remodel.  I liked what I saw, more room, newer games, seemed very nice.  I’m not sure I’ll be playing there, but at least it looked like they made improvements.  We went through the Wild Wild West part, which is still pretty barren.  They moved the poker room down on the street side, where their old “Little Joe’s Video Poker” area was, now it’s all live poker tables.  It’s very quiet there, since there isn’t anything else around there.  They did move the stage outside of the Mountain Bar to a separate stage, and put the beer pong and mechanical bull there too.

We walked through Coyote Kate’s, still pretty much the same, and went to Caesars.  We walked down to Trump Plaza, so strange seeing it with the lights off.  They were just starting to take the names down the following Monday.  The Rainforest Café, which is in the building is still open though.

We went back to Caesars and had dinner at Kwi.  We already enjoy eating there, but since they don’t allow children there, I can’t eat there when I’m with my family.  We got what we usually get, seafood udon, although Bob asked for his with just shrimp.  They also got rid of the coconut ice cream, which we like.

We headed back to Resorts and headed down to Stone Harbor, getting there a little after 11 PM.  We set up the Xbox there and played a bit before calling it a night.

Saturday, October 4

I slept later while Bob went out and got a haircut.  We were supposed to have some people come over for dinner, but they all had to cancel.  We still had to go out shopping for food, so we picked up some steaks and Bob was going to make some mac and cheese.  We walked into town so I could get my daughter some souvenirs.  We have stayed here many times, but never really went into the town.  I got her a shirt and a magnet for her collection.

Bob went for a quick swim in the bay, I found the water a bit cold for my taste, so I just watched.  It was overcast and windy, but when the sun was out, it was nice.  We got to see a pretty nice sunset.

Bob grilled the steaks, made the mac and cheese, and made some chicken for lunch the next day.

There was a nice moon out that night, too bad the phone on my camera can’t take good pictures of it.

We actually watched some pre-season hockey before playing more Xbox.

Sunday, October 5

We figured we’d have to leave around 2, so we had lunch there and watched part of the Eagles game.  I was wondering if it was a home game (it was) and if that would affect our travel plans.  Since my train left at 4:35, and I wanted to get there around 3:45, we would avoid any heavy traffic.  We did get to 30^th Street Station around 3:54, but they hadn’t announced the departure gate.  In fact, it is advertised that they’ll announce the gate 10 minutes before departure, but that didn’t happen.  Then they made the announcement that the Northeast Regional and the Acela would be departing from the same gate (opposite tracks).

I boarded near the front of the train, but it was packed.  Very packed!  It was the most crowded train I had ever taken,  I went from the front to the last car (all the while lugging my bag) and ended up in the second to last seat on the train.  It thinned out a little at Wilmington (the train originated in New York and was going to Richmond) and in Baltimore, it really cleared out.

I got off at New Carrollton, since it’s easier to take the Metro Orange line straight from there to Vienna than going to Union Station, taking the Red Line from there and switching trains at Metro Center.  I got to Vienna around 7:47 and Cath picked me up.

We stopped for dinner at IHOP, since Tessandra wanted pancakes, so I didn’t get home until 10:25.  Quite the long day, but it was fun.

We didn’t go up and see Showboat and Revel, and I didn’t see what happened with the walkway from the Taj to Showboat (did they wall it off, or just have the doors locked with a sign).

I have a reservation at Trump Taj for November 7-8 and it’s scheduled to close on the 13^th.  That will be an interesting trip.  I also have another reservation at Borgata for Nov 23-24 in the Fiore suite, I’m hoping to keep that.  We usually spend time between Christmas and New Year’s up there, but with all of the casinos closing (I get most of my free rooms from Resorts and Taj), if the Taj closes, there’s a good chance that I won’t get more than two comped nights up there at Resorts (although if I do two nights, then a night somewhere else, and then two more nights, it is possible).  I’m also planning on going to the Winter Classic in DC on New Year’s Day, so I’ll have to be home for New Year’s Eve anyway.  I guess we’ll see how things look next month.

No royals this trip, but two $200 DDB quads with kicker and the $200 aces were good to keep the trip from being a big loser.